OBJECTIVE The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of recipient age on the regenerative response to implantation with young skeletal myoblasts (SKMCs) after a coronary artery ligation. BACKGROUND In contrast with previous findings in animals, the initial clinical trials of cell transplantation after a myocardial infarction have reported only limited improvements in ventricular function. The restricted regenerative capacity of cells isolated from older patients is certainly a factor; however, the present study investigated the impact of another potentially significant factor: recipient age. METHODS We compared the myogeneic capacities of SKMCs isolated from young rats (3 months old) and older rats (24 months old). Highly myogenic SKMCs derived from young rats (or culture media, in control rats) were then transplanted into the infarcted myocardium of young and older recipients at 1 week after coronary ligation. RESULTS In vitro, proliferation and myotube formation were significantly greater in SKMCs derived from young rats than from older rats. In vivo, young and older recipients of SKMCs exhibited increases in cell density, vascular density, and collagen preservation relative to age-matched control animals. However, cell therapy produced significantly greater functional improvements in young recipients than in older, along with relative increases in stem cell factor, cell density, cell survival, and angiogenesis. CONCLUSIONS Functional improvement after the post-myocardial infarction implantation of young SKMCs was limited in older recipients, likely due to reductions in their cardiac and systemic responses to cell transplantation.